Don Coscarelli, the auteur behind such cult classics as "Phantasm" (1979), "The Beastmaster" (1982) and "Bubba Ho-Tep" (2002), is back after a decade's hiatus with "John Dies at the End," a surreal, daft and irresistible horror comedy about two slacker hipsters, John (Rob Mayes) and Dave (Chase Williamson), who stumble into the blossoming of a possible apocalypse. It is, Coscarelli likes to joke, the first movie that began with a recommendation from a robot.

"It came about through Amazon," the 58-year-old filmmaker says during a chat at the Toronto International Film Festival, where "John Dies at the End" took third place in the Midnight Madness People's Choice Award competition.

"Once or twice a year, I really like to get a good zombie fiction book. I got one of those Amazon e-mails that said, 'If you like this Permuted Press book, you will love "John Dies at the End." ' First off, the title just grabbed me. I thought, 'That might be the best title I've ever heard.' Then when it said something about two young guys and an inter-dimensional drug called soy sauce that causes an otherworldly invasion, it was like all these touchstones of movies I've made or wanted to make.

"Then I got the book itself and read it. David Wong - his real name is Jason Pargin - is a brilliant talent," Coscarelli adds. "I liked his voice for these young characters. I've met some younger folks, and there's a certain apathetic quality I see once in a while in young people that I wouldn't necessarily be able to write, but he had this ability where they would always respond to the monsters in this deadpan response. I thought, 'That's unique, and I'd like to be able to put it in a movie.' "

Loved a challenge

Coscarelli also loved the challenge of taking a novel that runs close to 400 pages in its original edition and transforming it into a 100-page screenplay without leaving out anything essential.

"I don't know, maybe I was a little too cavalier about that, because that was something I was dealing with all the way until I finished the last cut of the movie a couple of weeks ago," Coscarelli says. "It was, 'What do I leave in? What is too long for audiences? What do I take out?' "

An even bigger challenge facing Coscarelli was raising money to make the movie. He had a fan in actor Paul Giamatti, who loved "Bubba Ho-Tep," Coscarelli's horror comedy starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis, as Elvis and JFK respectively, nursing home residents who battle an ancient zombie. Giamatti was going to play Elvis' manager, Col. Tom Parker, in the sequel, "Bubba Nosferatu," and he also came aboard as a producer to help the director raise funds.

"He went to some meetings with me at some major studios, which was really fun, because as a lower-tier horror director, when you go into these meetings, they listen," Coscarelli says. "They're polite and all that stuff, but when you go in with Paul Giamatti as a producer, they go, 'Oh, Mr. Coscarelli, it's so nice to meet you! We're very interested in your movie!' Ultimately, this one studio, they decided not to do 'Bubba Nosferatu,' but I felt that this executive loved Paul and wanted to do anything with Paul, was searching for something that was not quite as weird as the 'Bubba' sequel."

Amazing, devastating

After "Bubba Nosferatu" fell apart and Coscarelli moved on to "John Dies at the End," he remembered that studio suit and asked Giamatti to send the executive his screenplay. The actor did along with a personal note expressing his own enthusiasm for the project. Giamatti shared the response he received back with Coscarelli.

"It was just amazing and devastating at the same time," he says. "It was this two-page, single-spaced letter from the person, and they really read the script and they analyzed every aspect of it. In deference to Paul, they really studied the script, trying to find out why he liked it. They went through it and as I'm reading it, I'm going, 'They get the script, and wow, it really sounds great when it's written out like this.'

"And then it comes down to the last paragraph, and it goes, 'And all of the above is exactly why we could never make this movie at the studio, because to make it for the mall audiences, we would have to take out everything in here - you couldn't have a bratwurst cell phone or a talking dog, they wouldn't accept it.' "

The bratwurst cell phone and talking dog are indispensable to the plot - and charm - of "John Dies at the End." Not willing to give up the project, Coscarelli adopted a strategy to make the movie at a lower budget, anchoring it with a handful of well-known (and potentially expensive) actors that included Clancy Brown, Doug Jones, "Phantasm" star Angus Scrimm and Giamatti, who took the role of a reporter. None would have to work for more than three or four days.

Unknown actors

He had a different set of criteria for his two leads.

"They needed to be unknown actors who could work for 15 weeks and we could pay them like nothing," Coscarelli laughs. "Working with some casting agents, we started looking at a lot of people. The most interesting thing as a director, when the actor who was dying to play your role walks in and reads the scenes for the first time, for the first time you see, 'Oh, this is really good work. It's so thrilling.' "

The director feels fortunate to have found Williamson, who was fresh out of drama school at the University of Southern California, and Mayes, an actor with some TV and film credits but little experience in comedy. His gut told him the two could carry the movie, but he also recalls his terror until that first day of shooting - when Williamson stepped in front of the camera opposite Giamatti.

Ice water in his veins

"Chase has to walk in - all he's ever been in is a YouTube project video - and he's got to do eight pages of dialogue with the great Giamatti," Coscarelli remembers. "I'm thinking, 'Can he handle the pressure of this?' And the kid has got ice water in his veins. Those are some of his best scenes in the movie.

"We rolled the dice," he adds. "I think there are some moments between Dave and John where it's almost like they're Abbott and Costello - actually there are even Three Stooges moments. It works." {sbox}